


The Life of a Writer

by butterflycollective



Category: Matt Houston (TV)
Genre: Adventure, F/M, Friendship is Magic, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:40:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27586892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterflycollective/pseuds/butterflycollective
Summary: Takes place after the end of the series.CJ is so bored with being yesterday's thing and takes up writing her epic romance novel. But what happens if it falls in the wrong hands?
Relationships: Matt Houston/CJ Parsons
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Borrowing the characters for fun.

Damn, at the rate she was going, she would never get this letter finished.

C.J. frowned as she looked at her computer screen, the letters threatening to blur in front of her face. She had put in some serious hours trying to get it just perfect so that she could send it to the printer and then pick up the copy and then put it on Matt's desk for his signature. How many mugs of coffee had she drunk in the past 12 hours, while pulling one of her all nighters at the office while Matt had been out playing.

Chris walked into the office with her own mug of java and a stack of paperwork that needed C.J.'s attention. Damn it all, why did the two women get stuck inside buried in contracts and mergers while the men, most notably Matt and his uncle Roy, were out playing private eye with the entire city as their playground?

Not that she missed sitting in parked cars for hours on stakeouts of business complexes, marinas or shopping malls. That had been more up Roy's alley as a former operative for some clandestine organization that went by an acronym. No, she liked the undercover jobs where she and Matt went to parties, galas, sports events, theaters, cruise liners and the occasional wedding. But since Roy's return with Matt from their weeks spent on the run clearing Matt's name, the two men had been inseparable while C.J. had been relegated to her days spent at the office. Murray had faxed her tons of work to handle from the Houston headquarters and that kept her very busy. But after this marathon stint at her computer, she had decided she had enough. She would turn in this last letter to Matt and then head off to the beach for some relaxation and time in the sun.

Chris picked up the tension in her and knew that she needed a break. They both did and in fact, they often talked about how they would pack up their bags, rent an old classic convertible T-Bird and then take off on a road trip. They would stop and check out anything including historical locations and tourist traps as they saw fit, stop and eat at a string of greasy diners and occasionally camp out beneath a sky filled with stars.

"I'm so tired Chris," C.J. said, "I'm going to need some reinforcements to keep my eyes opened."

Chris sipped her fifth cup of coffee which left her feeling quite buzzed. She had buried in more contracts faxed by workaholic Murray herself. In the wee hours of the morning the two of them had plotted hiring someone to teach the frenzied corporate president of Houston Enterprises on how to relax. If C.J. could just figure out how to do that herself, to get herself to relax and not feel as if she were on a treadmill all the time

"How's your novel coming?"

C.J. brightened at the question, because really her foray into fictional writing had kept her more relaxed than she had any right to be considering her rigorous schedule.

"It's coming along just nicely," she said, "Heading to Chuck's ranch that weekend really helped me create the setting for my characters."

"Oh you mean Royal Austin," Chris said, "and Carly James."

The budding author nodded, happily.

"I'm having a little trouble with the plot but the characters, they have some intense chemistry between them."

Chris peered over C.J.'s shoulder as she maximized one of her computer windows on top of the letter she had been drafting for over a day.

Royal looked into Carly's eyes and his gaze mesmerized her into silence as he leaned closer, to caress his lips with her own cupping her chin in his callused hand. As his mouth claimed her in one breath, she gasped, threading her arms around his waist and drawing him closer in for the kill…"

Chris frowned.

"Is he her lover or her victim," she said, "Because I'm not sure whether she's kissing him because she's hot for him or to lure him into a deadly trap."

C.J. furrowed her brow, examining the prose closer.

"I'm not sure either Chris," she said, "but then it's pretty early in the book…"

Chris smiled.

"Well it's great that you're taking up writing," she said, "It's a great balance to kickboxing in order to reduce your stress level."

C.J. reached for her sixth cup of coffee.

"I got to do something," she said, "I'm about to jump out of my skin or be like Rupert jumping out of a boiling pot."

"You need a vacation C.J…."

"I'm heading to the beach…as soon as I finish this letter."

"Well your writing is really hot," Chris said, "Those characters just sizzle when they're together."

"That's the effect I'm going for," C.J. said, "I want the readers to be drawn into the story."

Chris examined the screen once again.

"Who's this Pearl Starr," she said, "Is she another character?"

C.J. shook her head.

"No that's my penname," she said, "I'm not publishing this novel under my real name. I've got a reputation to think of and this way when it's selling on Amazon, no one will know it's me."

"Good point…besides how would Matt feels if he knew the truth?"

C.J. shrugged.

"He's too busy either working his cases or trying to convince himself it's over between him and Crystal."

Chris rolled her eyes.

"That girl is just the latest in a string of them since he broke up with his fiancée two months ago," she said, "It's just a guy thing."

C.J. thought about that and about how yesterday morning she had walked in on Matt naked as a jaybird beneath the swirling bubbles of his Jacuzzi and wearing his favorite hat while a redheaded woman leaned over and kissed him goodbye.

"I think I hear something," she said, suddenly, "wasn't that the elevator?"

Chris peered out towards the lobby.

"I think I just saw Matt come in the office…alone."

C.J. figured he probably had gone downstairs to the gym to work out or to shoot a game of pool.

"Well I'm ready to head to the beach," she said, "I just have to send this letter to the printer."

Chris gave it a precursory glance.

"Looks okay to me," she said, "and if Matt's downstairs, he'll get it off the printer."

C.J. nodded and looking up at Chris, she pushed the print button.

Matt had entered the office after having spent the morning doing a training run on the beach for his upcoming foray into a charity triathlon and then decided to head down to the office to do some strength training including lifting weights. The suite had been quiet so he figured that no one had arrived at the office. He remembered that C.J. had mentioned something about finishing that merger letter involving the oil companies and that it would need his signature.

While heading to the workout machine, he heard the familiar sound of the printer copying some document that had been electronically transferred to it and then converted to a hard copy. He slung his workout towel around his neck and headed on over to see what had come off the printer, and noticed the pages stacking themselves neatly enough in the cache. He reached down to pick one up believing it had to be that merger letter, but instead of legalese, he found something else.

His eyes furrowed while he perused the document and then they widened. This sure the hell didn't read like any merger contract letter he had ever read in his entire business career. It appeared to be some kind of story about a cowboy…who raised horses and commuted to his business in a…helicopter…and wait a minute…he continued onward through the pages until he reached a scene where he…some shapely brunette named Carly and a pool table factored in to what…wow…this was some writing, made him forget about the horses for a while. He looked on the sheets for anything to identify its author but saw very little except…

"Who the hell is Pearl Starr," he whispered incredulously.

Chris and C.J. sat by the wet bar eating some egg burritos that they had heated up and drenched with salsa.

"I'm so glad I got that letter done," C.J. said, "Now it's out of my hands and after I'm fed, I'm leaving for the beach."

Chris sighed.

"I'm heading home to my dog," she said, "and lying on the hammock for the rest of the day."

They heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and Matt appeared still dressed in some sweats and a Rice University tee-shirt.

"Hi Houston," C.J. said, "I finished the letter and sent it down there but you need to sign it. And then I'm heading out…"

Matt rubbed the bridge of his nose, not sure how to proceed.

"What letter," he said, "I haven't seen it, and do you mean the merger one?"

C.J. folded her arms and blew a tendril out of her way in exasperation. She had one foot out the door already and now she might have to remain her longer. Well, no he had to get on downstairs and find the copy of the letter she forwarded to the printer.

But wait a minute, he had some papers in his hand…that had to be the letter except…it looked like what he held was more than two pages long.

"What you got there?"

Matt looked at the papers in his hand as if they had just appeared there because he still felt the shock.

"Someone sent a rather…interesting story, someone by the name of Pearl Starr," he said, scratching his head, "Wires must have gotten crossed."

Damn, she hadn't sent her letter to the printer, she had sent her draft of her novel and right now he had it in his hands.

"Houston…how much of it have you read?"

He looked up from having glanced at it again.

"Enough…to know it will be interesting to see how it turns out."

She read the look on his face, and sighed inwardly in relief. He didn't seem to have associated what he had just been reading with anyone and certainly not with her. But Matt was pretty smart and he had the kind of investigative skills that if he really wanted to find Pearl Starr, he would and then what would he be thinking?

Because come to think about it, Royal Austin did sound a lot like him. But he didn't seem to notice that at least not right now.

"That scene with the pool table…"

Her face flushed. Ah, yes she remembered writing that one with a glass of wine and some dark chocolate while sitting on her back patio. Two evenings after Matt and Elizabeth had broken up and gone their separate ways, both still in love but knowing what they shared together had ended. Matt had gone out to dinner with her a couple of times, a custom they shared when either one of them had just broken up with someone. But he had seemed to recover from his disappointment rather quickly, heading back into the social scene picking up where he left off.

She of course had been too busy working at the office and so had retreated to her novel writing because frankly she had grown tired of the singles scene. She wasn't a woman who enjoyed one night stands although the most dangerous one had actually involved a woman who had a brief fling with Matt and then went postal with a very sharp knife. If Matt hadn't rushed into the suite, well she probably would have thrown the crazed woman off of her somehow.

But at least he had only shot Erin to wound her and after the police carted her off to the mental institution for evaluation, they had both moved on to other relationships. C.J. had wondered how Erin could have thought that she…Matt…well the women had suffered a break from reality from a lifetime of abuse and she had experienced delusions on top of it.

After her disastrous relationship with the murdering anchorman, Robert Tyler she had sworn off men and switched to writing romances. If she couldn't be in a great relationship then her characters would fare much better.

"It almost seems like the male character…"

She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking no you don't, don't think that it has anything to do with you or that Royal has a real life counterpart. It's all fiction, made up to pass away grueling hours spent looking at contracts and merger forms and listening to Murray's demands all day on the phone.

"No Houston, it's just your imagination…you don't even know who the writer is after all," she said.

Technically that could have been the case because most of the people who worked throughout the building could send drafts of anything they wrote to the printer in the suite. It didn't happen that often but it could…and if he believed it did this time that was fine with her.

"It's good writing," he said, thoughtfully, "I thought about starting a publishing firm for books. No matter what the economy's doing, people always want to read either for escape or recreation."

She knew he loved to read when he had time though he favored Zane Gray.

"I'm sure this one's not quite that good," she said, "Not that I've read it but it's very hard to write well unless you've done it for years."

Matt nodded, but his attention was already drawn back to the pages he held. He thumbed through them and then his eyes widened.

"This part is really good," he said, "I've never tried this myself."

Oh she wanted to blush but if she did, how would she explain it?

"What part," she asked tentatively.

He looked up at her.

"Royal and…what's her name…Carly are on a horse…together."

Oh dear, that part. She bit her lip.

"Sounds interesting," she said, "Well I've got to be going…"

He looked up again, obviously tearing himself away from the manuscript with some reluctance.

"Already," he said, "I thought maybe we'd look at those new documents that Murray faxed…together…"

Her brows furrowed.

"Now, don't you have some stakeout or something?"

He shook his head.

"I need to go through these papers with you," he said, "and maybe we could…order some pizza with it. Make it a working lunch."

She shrugged, and nodded. This would make a great story to tell her writing group later on tonight about how her novel had wound up in the wrong hands.

"Okay, that will be fine…just let me get my notepad."

She left him and he watched her go, that sashay of her hips that always caught his eye. He looked at the manuscript written by this Pearl Starr and then at her departing figure. And then he smiled, his eyes twinkled as he thought about what he had just read. He just never thought...

Damn in all the years he had known her, he had known her to be many things, hold many talents but he had never known her to be a writer. Oh life was about to get interesting, he would make sure of that.


	2. Chapter 2

C.J. sat in the midst of her reading group, waiting for her turn to read her latest chapter out loud in front of a throng of women from in their twenties to their eighties. When she had signed up to undertake the challenge to really write her novel, she hadn't known if she could really commit the time or energy to do it justice, not with the grueling schedule she kept at the office these days. Chris had been the one to dare her to take the plunge and she had gone and done it.

Then immediately tried to find a local writing group for some feedback given that she hadn't been much of a fiction writer except that she had really needed to do some writing to relieve some of the stress of being pushed back into corporate law. And from there Pearl Starr had been born, borrowing the name of the daughter of one of the most famous female outlaws to use in lieu of using her real name. She just didn't want anyone to know who wrote about her characters Royal Easton and Carly James…at least not yet and it had worked brilliantly just this morning with Matt.

She hadn't met to send a copy of her novel to the printer and certainly hadn't intended it to be read by him but at least the pen name that she had chosen had successfully shielded her identity. He hadn't been any the wiser in terms of figuring out its author. After all, it could be one of over a hundred employees in the building.

He had kept the papers and she had been worried about that until she realized that any attempts to take them back might make him suspicious because she knew how smart he was, how sharp an investigator he had become in their time spent working together on over a hundred cases. But he had just gone back into his office still holding on to her manuscript after inviting her for a working lunch meeting.

And the pizza they had shared while they worked through some case files together had been delicious. Okay, not as tasty as Mama's had been but the sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese had almost made a convert out of her. Matt had stuck to the four food groups, chicken, beef, sausage and Canadian Bacon. They had each staked out their pizza slices and sat there washing them down with some sparkling grape juice and he just kept looking at her while they ate. As if he hadn't seen here before which was just silly because they had known each other since they were kids…but that hadn't been really what she noticed…it was how he had looked at her.

He kept asking her if she had eaten enough which wasn't like him at all and kept asking her if she wanted more juice. She just threw him a strange look of bemusement every once in a while and had watched him carefully as well.

If she didn't know better, she would think…no if he had known she had wrote that sample of writing he had taken off the printer he would definitely had said something…possibly something embarrassing to make her blush but he hadn't…he had just smiled and walked back to his office.

"So what do you think?"

C.J. looked up from where she sat at Sophia, a woman in her sixties who had been crafting an epic novel taking place in the pre-Civil War South that sounded suspiciously like Gone with the Wind.

"I think it sounds…interesting…"

All the faces turned towards C.J. and Sophia grew indignant.

"Is that all you can say," She said, "You lawyer types are sure stingy with your words. I spent all weekend on it even after my kids thought I was crazy."

Beverly, a woman who looked in her forties with long brown hair streaked with grey and horn rimmed glasses just shook her head.

"Southern belle caught between two men and pining over the wrong one," she said, "Already been done…several times…"

Sophia scoffed.

"At least I'm not writing my novel about my boss and creating a female character to get it on with him because I'm too chicken to do it in real life."

C.J.'s mouth opened but what could she say…really? But seriously, how could anyone think her novel had anything to do with her and Matt? The two had nothing to do with each other. She had just been struck while recovering from a particularly arduous power luncheon with some Houston Enterprises hard hitters into crafting some words together of what turned out to be the beginning of quite a good story. It wasn't about her pining over anyone let alone Matt, the man who had been her best friend most of her life. They had never really kissed, well except once over some frog jumping deal and they certainly had never taken it any further than that one kiss. The one that had left her lips tingling as her heart skipped a beat, the one that Matt had then waggled his brows over as if it were one big joke.

Oh yeah, like hell her foray into written expression had anything to do with her…or him..and certainly not them. It's not like she wrote the scene about Royal and Carly getting it on while playing a particularly seductive game of pool because she was indulging in some fantasy involving her friend. Even though he had a pool table in his suite and they did occasionally blow off some steam playing a rack and shooting ideas off of one another when it came to either making business deals or solving particularly difficult cases. Usually the game had been interrupted when one or the other came up with a particularly great idea for how to do one task or the other not because they were caught up in a wave of undeniable passion that brought them together like magnets…oh now that's a simile she had to file away and use in a future scene.

"C.J…are you going to drop any pearls of wisdom or should we move on to Shelly's Sci-Fi screenplay?"

She just smiled at them.

"I'm finished," she said, "Historical bodice ripping romances just never were my thing."

"To each his own," Shelly counseled, "Now get ready because I'm about to share with you a very exciting part."

Matt sat in his office with his cowboy boots resting on his desk, reading some papers. Not the contracts he was supposed to have had read and signed hours ago, but the stack of pages he had retrieved from the printer. The remnants of the novel written by Pearl Starr who he damn well knew had been a pseudonym used by his own best friend. It had been written all over her face when he had been talking about the book…particularly some of its highlighted scenes, the ones still playing out inside his head. Damn he had always known she could write things like legal briefs, torts and contracts but he had never guessed she had any interest in writing for pleasure or that she had a yen for this kind of writing. But he knew that Pearl Starr had been an idea for a Halloween costume one time when they had been teenagers so once he read that name, the jig was up.

Still, he had taken her novel back to his office to read in its entirety and the scenes within it, did she really think about these things? Was she the inspiration for Carly thus writing about her own self and face it, he might be a bit thick when it came to literary pursuits, but even he could figure out the identity of a guy named Royal Austin who just happened to be a cowboy who rode horses and shot pool. Of course it had to be him and if she were indeed Carly…Matt's heart skipped a beat as the repercussions hit him more fully. That meant that she must have some designs on him that she didn't feel comfortable in revealing to him herself so she had suppressed that energy and had channeled it into her writing.

He had to put the hot pages down for a moment and really think about what had happened. Essentially in that he had just been given a window into her true person, the woman that he thought he had known so well.

But had he, because when he had been shooting pool with her all these years, he certainly hadn't had any idea that she had looked at the table and seen other possibilities besides lining up the eight ball in the corner pocket. She had often stood; pool cue in hand usually dressed casually in jeans and a jacket and had waited for him to make his move. Only he had thought it was to sink the final striped balls in the last final shots. But now, he realized that it seemed to be clear now that she hadn't been thinking about pool at all.

How could he, a man who had enjoyed the company of many beautiful women possibly have missed the cues she had been given off?

He sighed over his workload, so much wanting to be out in the field, doing a stakeout while eating greasy fast food or chasing some bad guy down the street and later being chewed out by Hoyt after pulling out his gun. But part of being a business tycoon turned private investigator meant spending the requisite time in the office filling out paperwork.

C.J. had left early from work today, finally having had enough of the growing stack of files on her desk. He sensed her displeasure at being stuck with the grunt work but she hadn't yet read him the riot act over it. He suspected the pizza had softened her up a little bit.

Roy stuck his head in the office.

"I'm heading out," he said, "You burning the midnight oil?"

Matt sighed.

"Not much longer," he said, "I'm getting dressed up, picking up Delilah I think it is tonight and heading out to that silent auction that is raising money for the new hospital wing."

Roy knew that his nephew felt a special yen for donating to these types of projects, his way of giving back for all the time he took from doctors' busy schedules to be patched up for some on duty injury like being slashed by an angry exotic cat or being dragged by a trolley car or something more on the ordinary side, like being shot. But then they had both known the dangers of what they did when they had signed up for it and neither would do anything differently.

"C.J. already left?"

Matt scratched his head because she had taken off early, tearing out of the office as if she were late to some event.

"Hours ago…but she's been working hard lately."

Roy nodded.

"I'm getting worried about her, stuck in the office all the time," he said, "I know she misses being out in the field."

Matt sighed again.

"We used to work side by side but when Murray needed all that legal assistance," he said, "She just jumped right in saying she was the Harvard grad."

Roy nodded again, remembering that conversation.

"Still…maybe you should ask her to help you out."

"I'm thinking about doing that," Matt mused, "Uncle Roy…"

"Yes?"

Matt paused.

"Have you ever thought you really knew something, everything about them?"

"No one knows everything about someone else," Roy said, "We just think we do and there's a difference."

"I know that…but has anyone that you've thought you knew really well really surprised you?"

Roy considered it.

"All the time Matlock," he said, "See you later."

Matt watched his uncle leave and shook his head. Because his very best friend had really knocked the socks off of him with all that non-legal writing she had done. He looked at his watch and knew he had to get ready for the auction and Delilah the woman he had picked off the Rolodex would be waiting for him to pick her up. He best get moving.

C.J. leaned back in her chair, having eaten enough chocolate to put her in just the right mood for writing. She had left her writing group and headed off to a nearby coffee shop with her laptop to continue writing her novel. She frequented different coffee shops trying to find the right one to please her muse but as of yet, no such luck.

Maybe she'd have better luck trying different bars. That made sense because she had to write this really crucial scene between Royal and Carly that took place in a bar where a fight broke out with Royal getting into a rumble with what's his name…oh that's right, her ex boyfriend Rodney Taylor who had just murdered a string of innocent people to further his career as a radio deejay at some country music station.

"Hey good looking…"

She looked up from her computer to see this tall guy who looked like he belonged in a seedy bar.

"I'm busy here…"

"I've been watching you doll face," the man said, "and you've been working so hard there, you need a break."

"I need to finish this chapter," she said, "and I'm not doll face."

"Then what is your name?"

She sighed.

"None of your business," she said, "Get lost."

His mouth quirked up into a leer as he considered her advice.

"I think I'll stay right here and get to know you better."

C.J. looked around at the other people working diligently at their computers and wondered why this guy chose to hassle her.

"Listen, I told you I'm working here," she said, "So take your cheap suit and obnoxious style and park it elsewhere."

Now he snarled.

"Listen you can't tell me what to do."

"Likewise…now get lost."

Instead he sat down in the chair opposite hers and she just rubbed her forehead.

"Hey what you writing there," he said, "It can't be too important, why don't we go someplace and get frisky?"

She just had reached her tipping point when it came to jerks coming on to her when she clearly had better things to do to keep her busy. She picked up her computer and tried to leave the table to work someplace else. But the man reached up and grabbed her, so she swung back her arm and hit him with her elbow right in the face.

"Why you…"

Oh he looked angry but what did he expect groping at a woman like that as if she were his property? He then grabbed her, forcing her to drop her computer and she pushed him over.

And just like that, the brawl began.

Matt looked over the items in the silent auction, checking to see if anything looked interesting. He had arrived with Delilah but she had run off to the powder room to freshen up. He had dressed in a casual dress suit but his date had decked herself out to the nines as if she were going to a cotillion. Most of the auction items on display in the ballroom of the Wilshire Regency Hotel were trips to exotic places, spa packages and a consultation of one of the most famous home improvement experts. The latter sounded interesting because he had been doing some renovation work at his mountain cabin. So he looked at the paperwork and submitted a bid to put himself in the lead.

He looked at some of the exotic vacations to places like Tahiti, Paris and Sydney not to mention cruises down the Nile and a safari in Tanzania. Now Matt had his own Lear jet fleet and chalets and other residences all around the world but these places sounded tempting. His thoughts turned to C.J. and what she might like maybe the Acapulco trip that included tours of ancient ruins in several spots in Mexico.

Delilah returned apparently all freshened up.

"These items, they look lovely," she said, "Do any bidding?"

He nodded.

"Several items," he said, "I'm trying to figure out what C.J…my associate might like."

Delilah's mouth pouted.

"You know you're not supposed to discuss other women on dates."

Matt smiled.

"She's not an 'other woman'; she's my business partner and my friend."

Delilah looked skeptical but dropped it, sashaying on to another table elegantly decorated and stocked with items up for bid.

"I think I like this…"

She pointed to a rather beautiful diamond necklace shown in a photograph. Matt guessed the real one was locked up in some safe.

"It looks…popular," he said, noting all the bids.

She caressed his arm with one manicured finger.

"Why don't you bid on it," she said, "You have more money than anyone here."

Well not quite, Matt thought looking at some of the dignitaries but why did the women he date begin talking about money at these charity events? He knew it came part and parcel with being a wealthy and he supposed eligible bachelor on the social scene but he wasn't a walking ATM machine.

"It's for charity," he said, "but I recognize some of the names on the bids and I think I'll sit this one out."

The truth was, he knew some of those folks and he wanted one of them to submit the winning bid on an item they'd appreciate more than he would.

"Fine…"

She then walked off and Matt just shook his head and left the table walking outside the French doors into the hallway to the bar.

C.J. sat there thinking.

When were they going to allow her to make her one phone call? And who would she call? Matt, no he was at a charity event with some girl off the Rolodex and she didn't want to interrupt his date. Roy, no he was busy out at one of his night classes. Wait a minute; wasn't she a criminal attorney well versed in that type of law and procedure? She didn't need the phone call then, she could handle being arrested and dropped in a jail cell by herself.


	3. Chapter 3

Matt found out that he had won the home improvement consultation at the end of the auction but had lost his bids on two of the exotic trips including the one to Antarctica. Delilah had grumbled a bit that he hadn't bid on the Star of Sappho necklace but Matt had been awfully glad to see one of his old friends win it as a gift to his daughter who was marrying into one of the top oil families in the country.

Delilah had taken off to go freshen up before they got ready to leave. He planned to drop her off quickly at her house and then maybe hit a friend's jazz act at one of the top night clubs in L.A. Delilah was pretty enough but pretty high maintenance and he wasn't sure she considered anything less than him buying her jewelry from this auction as a fun time. But he had been running through the names in the Rolodex that he had resumed using after his engagement to Elizabeth had gone kaput and all his dates had ended up pretty much like this one.

"Ready to go," he asked when Delilah returned.

"Been ready…I still can't believe that Star of whatever went to that old man."

"He's a close friend of my daddy's and he's given me sage advice on more than one occasion," Matt noted, "His daughter had her eye on it when it hit the catalogue."

She shrugged her shoulders.

"It would have looked prettier around my neck."

Maybe, Matt thought but she already had a diamond necklace that she had picked up from somewhere which looked just fine.

"So I guess I'll drop you off at your place…"

"Aren't you going to come inside for a nightcap?"

She dropped her eyes seductively and her mouth curled into a hint of a smile. He smiled back at her.

"I won't be able to stay…I have an early stakeout tomorrow…"

Indeed he did with Roy at some shopping mall where a client of his ran a business being targeted for extortion threats. But truth be told, his mind had wandered back to the novel waiting at his beach house. He might even have skipped going to the club but he had promised his friend. Still, he would just read a few more pages, a chapter maybe before hitting the sack. He hadn't been a fan of romance novels, hadn't been his thing but reading this…wow…he just had no idea what had been hiding behind the exterior of his best friend.

"Well we could get a room here," she said, toying with his lapel, "How about a suite?"

He sighed, forcing his attention back on her.

"I can't…I have to head to my office early tomorrow before the stakeout."

She folded her arms, obviously hoping they would be finishing their date by hitting the sheets but although she clearly was a beauty, it just wasn't going to happen. She just wasn't his type and he found that his broken engagement had made him a tad choosier with the women he dated. Besides he had left off his reading at the part when Carly had just shown up in the tack room of the stable wearing only one of his shirts and a smile.

What had Royal done next, inquiring minds wanted to know. He knew what he would have done…wait a minute here this was his best friend he was talking about right? Or at least what she had written about characters that resembled the two of them.

"Come on…I guess you'd better get me home then."

She didn't sound too happy but they left to go fetch his car from the valet before heading on to her house.

Lt. Mike Hoyt couldn't believe his own eyes, rejecting the sight in front of him as anything but an illusion. He didn't know where it came from because why would he be thinking about such a law abiding person like C.J. sitting in one of his jail cells. But there she sat, dressed in casual jeans and a sweater. She smiled when she saw him.

"Hoyt…"

He just shook his head.

"What have you done," he said, "this has to be some kind of mistake."

She looked down at her hands.

"I got arrested at the Coffee World on Broadway for assault."

His eyes widened, had he just heard her properly? How could that be so, surely there had to be some kind of technical error and he best get it straightened out quickly.

"This guy started coming on to me using all these cliché lines and all I wanted to do was finishing writing…well doing some writing and he started getting physical so I just pushed him away…but it was in self defense."

Hoyt sighed; clearly this situation wouldn't be easy to sort out quickly. In fact, it could take hours to sort out everyone's stories. Examine any evidence like surveillance videos to figure out what happened and who if anyone broke the law.

"If it's self-defense, then we can spring you relatively quickly but if you were the aggressor…"

She stood up then not happily.

"Hoyt, he was pawing me and acting like it was some kind of meat market singles bar and I have the right to protect myself from a mauling."

Hoyt nodded, conceding her point there but they had to examine all sides of the rather confusing set of circumstances. But he told C.J. he would make sure she had plenty of food and drink while she waited.

Then he went to make a phone call.

Matt cruised on his way to the club after dropping off Delilah who just stomped off in a huff. His phone had then rang and he clicked it open. He didn't recognize the phone number.

"This is Houston…"

"Oh Matt, darling, it's so good to hear your voice again…"

Matt's memory dug deep to pair that familiar sounding voice laced with an accent with its proper face and name. Wait a minute…it sounds an awful lot like…

"Matt this is Serena," the voice purred, "Don't tell me you've forgotten me already…"

"Who could ever forget a woman like you?"

He heard her sigh her approval on the other end.

"Well that's better," she said, "I'm in town for a while and I was wondering if I can drop by your office to discuss a proposition…"

Now wariness filled him because they hadn't parted on the best of terms, as she had cursed at him in Italian when she had departed the yacht where a major case he handled had ended with several shootings.

"I'm booked tomorrow," he said, "I've got stakeouts and meetings with clients all day."

"Well all I need is a few minutes of your time," she said, "Surely you can spare it for old times' sake."

Precisely the reason he didn't want to do it. She had been poison to him the last time around and he didn't think the passage of time had sweetened her up at all.

"I'm sorry I can't…"

"Fine…"

She clicked her phone off in an angry huff and he just looked at his phone, noticing that he had a message on his phone from someone else. He listened to it as it played, his eyes widening. Afterward, he abruptly turned his Mercedes convertible around and raced in the opposite direction.

C.J. sat in her cell, wishing they hadn't confiscated her laptop because she had time to kill until they sprung her and inspiration pooled in her mind, wanting to spill out into a medium. She hadn't anything to write with so she just had to let her ideas for her novel gel in her mind. At this point in her novel, Royal had still not admitted his true feelings towards Carly at least not in words. But she had determined that her main male protagonist was a man of action, not of words. Carly on the other hand was a capable woman who was both beautiful to look at and who took matters in her own hands. In the current chapter, they had been working on a case together and had succumbed to their mutual passion while hiding in a safe that they had been locked in by the main antagonist in the story.

Her brow furrowed. Wait a minute, did that sound logical? Why would they be entangled in each other's arms going at it when in reality if that happened with her and Matt as it did once, they would instead be using their brains and brawn in his case to find their way out before they either suffocated or died of thirst or starvation. Seriously, their words would be along the lines of, this didn't work, we need to try plan B rather than, kiss me again as it might be our very last day on earth. But then the romance genre hadn't been intended to involve much if any logic, it was all about…romance which had no logic to it.

Hoyt came back to her cell just as she tried to resolve that key issue in her head.

"Well I made a phone call for you," he said, "Houston didn't pick up so I left a short message including to call me back."

She looked at him, horrified.

"Don't tell me you just called him and told him I'm in jail."

Hoyt sighed.

"Yes I just did," he said, "You need his help to get you out and get you home."

"What about my car?"

"It's still in the parking lot of Coffee World."

She ran her hand through her hair.

"I didn't want him to know about this Hoyt."

That confounded him.

"Why not," he said, "He is your business partner and closest friend."

She sighed.

"He's also got a life of his own and in fact is out on a very hot date right now."

"Maybe that's why he didn't pick up his phone…"

She thought that must be the case that Royal…Houston was too busy with his mind on other things besides answering a phone call from Hoyt and then dropping everything to rush over to bail her out of jail.

"Hoyt, you shouldn't…he's going to be so upset that he had to leave his date…you know he's had problems since his engagement broke off."

Hoyt folded his arms.

"I would think helping get his friend out of jail would be more important than anything else…including getting some action."

She couldn't believe that Matt once again would be rushing over here to deal with getting someone out of jail…only now it was her.

"How much longer am I going to be here?"

"About an hour or so at least," he said, "The other guy's not talking, waiting for an attorney."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Why, it's just a simple assault."

Hoyt shrugged.

"It's within his rights."

She just sat down again and closed her eyes, wiling her best friend to just stay away. She could get herself out of jail…after all; she was a trained and experienced attorney. She clerked under one of the best criminal defense attorneys F. Lee Bailey.

"Hoyt, just tell him not to come…I can handle it."

"It's a little too late for that," she heard a familiar voice say.

She opened her eyes and there she saw him right in front of the jail cell. Still dressed up, looking as handsome as ever, concern in his brown eyes.

"What happened to your date," she asked.

"She's home…I was on my way to check out that jazz act at the club when I picked up Hoyt's phone message."

She sighed.

"I told him not to call you."

He looked at her, seeing her sitting behind bars.

"Well I'm glad he did," he said, "C.J. we've got to get you out of there."

She shook her head.

"I've got to get me out of here," she said, "Houston, I shoved a man but only to defend myself. I don't like being just grabbed like that…by men I don't even know."

He knew that from experience that his friend took care of herself. But he would like a piece of any guy who hassled her.

"Houston…if you had been there, you'd have wound up behind bars with me."

She had just read his mind again in that uncanny way of hers. She seemed to know him inside and out to the point where she could anticipate his thoughts whereas he hadn't known that inside her, lived a passionate writer with such strong feelings for…well now he knew. But what was he going to do about that? He didn't know but he couldn't resolve that issue here while she still sat in jail.

"Hoyt, I'm bailing her out…now…"

The lieutenant listened, knowing there was no room for argument when it came to Matt about C.J.

"I'll see what I can do," he said, leaving them.

C.J. stood up and approached the bars with her arms folded.

"Houston, I appreciate what you're doing but I can take care of myself."

His brow rose.

"C.J. you're in a jail cell," he said, "How is that…"

She shot him a warning look.

"Drop it…I know you think you're helping me but I really could handle this myself."

He tried a different tactic.

"I know that," he said, "but I don't want you to spend the night here. I'll take you to pick up your car when we get out of here."

She finally nodded, because she did feel tired and in her mind, she saw her home awaiting her, a kitchen filled with food to just heat up before heading to bed. And if she couldn't get to sleep right away, she could work on her novel…assuming she got her laptop back from evidence.

"You're right," she said, "I just want to go home and get some sleep but why did you leave your date?"

He looked at her thoughtfully.

"I was read to do that," he said, "We didn't really hit it off. She did hit it off with my wallet."

"Oh..."

"It's a pattern I've been noticing lately," he said, "It's been a while since I met a woman more interested in me."

Ever since Elizabeth, had been the words he hadn't said. But she knew it was a risk that he faced being one of the nation's wealthiest men. But damn, just look at him, even dropping by to visit her in jail he looked absolutely perfect. What woman could resist that and he really enjoyed spending time with women and knew how to show them a great time…he was nice and funny and when he was dressed in his cowboy garb he was…Royal.

Damn everyone had been right about Royal being him and her novel being more true to life than she'd ever admit out loud if only to herself.

Hoyt returned and directed the jailer to let C.J. out of her cell.

"No bail necessary," he said, "The other guy decided not to press charges."

"I wonder why, "she said," Well what about me, I don't get to file charges?"

Hoyt sighed.

"C.J. you struck him with your laptop," he said, "You could be facing assault with a deadly weapon charges."

Matt shook his head.

"She wouldn't attack someone unless she had been trying to defend herself."

C.J. agreed.

"Exactly…that guy grabbed me right in the middle of Coffee World and you're saying if I protect myself using the only thing I have available I'll go to prison?"

Hoyt held up his hand.

"That's not what I said," he said, "Just get out of my sight, the both of you.'

They were more than happy to do that.

"Where do I get my things?"

Hoyt sighed again.

"At the evidence desk…I expedited it for you."

"Thanks…"

They both went to fetch her property including that all important laptop.

They made it to the jazz club just in time to catch the intermission so they ordered some Monte Cristo sandwiches and potato wedges. They sat in a booth, enjoying the fare.

"You're sure starving…"

She gazed up at him in mid-bite.

"You know I love the food here but …yes I'm quite hungry."

He didn't mind at all preferring women who made it clear they enjoyed eating great food rather than pick at their plates. Women with good culinary appetites usually carried them over to other areas and watching her eat…Matt had to wonder.

"What are you looking at?"

His eyes skirted away from her.

"Oh nothing…"

The fact was that he had been watching her and she had caught him at it which caused a flush of embarrassment to fill him though why, he didn't understand. She was his best friend since they were kid.

But this Pearl Starr side of her which had just emerged or been discovered by him, now that was something else.

"Houston…you're not eating," she said, "anything wrong with the food?"

"No…I was just thinking that if we had a publishing company, that novel I just discovered could be a top seller."

She sighed.

"Oh Houston, I'm sure it was just some employees scribbling to work off a little steam, that's all," she said, "I wouldn't run off trying to publish it especially since you don't know who wrote it."

He paused and she looked up at him to check if he were still there. And he had resumed eating his sandwich.

"Did you like it?"

He looked up at her again.

"Like what?"

"The novel?"

He considered her question and how best to answer it.

"It's…interesting and very…expressive."

She nodded.

"And there's something awfully familiar about it…"

Her heart skipped a beat. Uh oh.

"How…so?"

He smiled clearly enjoying this for some reason.

"Well I noticed that Royal…the main guy in the story likes to sit in Jacuzzis without anything on except his favorite cowboy hat…"

Damn, oh she was so busted. No, maybe she should just play along to find out how much he knew, a tactic both of them used when interviewing people as part of an investigation.

"And then Carly…the woman in the story takes a gander at him when he's not looking…and wishes she could join him…"

"A common romantic plot I would suppose."

He scratched his head.

"I just can't figure out why she doesn't…join him," he said, "I mean if Royal's so handsome and sexy and loves the ladies, then why not join him?"

She sighed.

"I don't know Houston…maybe she just doesn't think he'll see it as anything but a joke…I mean not that I've read it or anything but it sounds like Carly might be close friends with him and not want to ruin a great thing?"

Matt still furrowed his brow considering her explanation, suppressing a smile.

"If I were to say something to the writer or to Carly…I would recommend that she stop thinking so hard about why she shouldn't get in the Jacuzzi with him and just try it sometime."

"Houston, I don't know why you're telling me this…"

He smiled this time so she could see it.

"I'm just thinking out loud, that's all."

She felt so flustered at that point as she picked up her sandwich again to finish it, never taking her eyes off of him. Were his suggestions as innocent as they seemed or did he know…her heart pounded but she opted for the former, of course he was just throwing out some advice like he often did, thinking out loud.

But then again…

"The music's beginning again," he said, switching topics.

She sat there with him listening but her mind had remained focused on what had just played out between them. How would she ever know the truth?


	4. Chapter 4

C.J. sat in the Jacuzzi in the lobby of the penthouse suite wearing her favorite blue bikini while submerged beneath the whirling bubbles. She had her glass of wine and some pieces of dark chocolate as she awaited inspiration for the next chapter of her novel. Last night's creative jag had been rudely interrupted by that loser guy and a few hours cooling off in the slammer. After Matt had sprung her, they had spent the rest of the evening at the club listening to a cool jazz act. She had spent most of the time there looking at him, wondering if he had read her mind, meaning if he knew that she and Pearl Starr were one in the same.

Sitting while the tension in her muscles ebbed away, she thought no way did he know the truth because her friend had always been a direct kind of guy, meaning that if he had a question he wanted answered, he just asked it. Whether in his work as an ace investigator or even with his family and friends if he sensed they hid a secret from him to spare him any pain. She had been working hard and staying at the office longer to make up for the time lost yesterday when she had left early to go to her weekly writers group. Matt hadn't minded her exit, nor had he even asked where she had been going. Just told her to have a good time, and stay safe.

During the drive from the club to Coffee World where she had left her car, not much had been said between them. He had switched the radio onto a jazz ballad and C.J. had leaned back in her seat listening to it, while looking out the windshield in front as the night lights danced across the glass and she could just pick up the hint of Matt's cologne. The same brand that Royal preferred, she thought in shock. She still hadn't gotten over the fact that Royal did resemble Matt down to just about every little detail. How had that happened because in the act of creation, she hadn't been thinking of him when she had been clicking her fingers across her computer keyboard. She had just been focusing on the task of creating credible characters that could carry the story she carried inside of her head, the script which turned out to closely resemble her own life.

Matt had clearly been thinking while they drove into the night. But he didn't share his thoughts but when she looked at him sideways, his face bore a smile. Maybe he was thinking of the next pretty young thing on his Rolodex that he would be taking out tonight. That had to be it, because she had been thinking about the next chapter in her novel and that had made her giddy in anticipation of spending a couple hours before bedtime once she got home at the keyboard again.

Seriously if she knew writing was so fun, she would have tried it a lot sooner and it did provide an escape of sorts away from the doldrums of her life now that Roy had become Matt's main sidekick. She really missed spending time out in the field with him and wished she had more of that and less office work. No point in thinking about it because as long as Murray had carte blanche to fax her endless stacks of documents, she had to proof them as Matt's legal eagle. So she had turned more and more to her creative pursuits, to kickboxing and punching a weight bag for several hours a day and hitting her computer to put her frustration into her novel.

She closed her eyes preferring to think of more attractive pastimes and a scene unfolded in her mind.

Royal threw his lasso and roped the young filly, who just happened to be Carly and pulled her slowly closer to him. She went willingly because she had been imagining how it would feel to have his hands on her burning skin, his lips caressing her own mouth, teasing it before claiming it.

"Oh Royal…I've waited for so long," she whispered when he released her from his lethal kiss.

"Hush my darling and let me show you some good loving…"

She closed her eyes and felt his lips blaze a trail of flames down her neck…

She frowned; wait a minute here, flames. She meant that metaphorically right? Because no man not even Royal could spew out fire from a kiss. She definitely needed to rework that part of the scene to figure out how to describe the essence of the two main characters caught in the throes of their too long suppressed and burning passions.

Man, it was getting hot in here. Oh wait, the Jacuzzi was supposed to be hot. She needed to refill her wine glass. She grabbed her robe and lifted herself out of the swirling water, slipped the robe over her body and headed to the wet bar. She filled the glass and then headed back to the tub, and as she disrobed and slid back in the heated water, she promised herself, one more hour and then she would return to serious novel writing. Discipline as a writer had been a skill she had been working to master at least as much as her schedule would allow.

The elevator door had opened while she had been on her way to the wet bar and Matt had exited on his way downstairs to quickly check the printer to see if any more invoices had been forwarded for his signature. He had been planning on meeting Ashleigh the massage therapist at the new bistro not far away and trying to avoid is ex, Serena who no doubt was on the prowl after him for some reason. His eye caught a beautiful woman with wavy dark hair wearing a robe that didn't leave much to the imagination, especially when it slipped off to reveal a curvaceous body in a blue bikini. The woman slid into the hot tub and for a moment, he thought it must be Serena because she had done that before, shown up unannounced and uninvited to his penthouse, her intention to seduce him into doing what she wanted.

"Who is that…"

The woman turned around and his heart skipped a beat when he saw it was C.J.

"Hi…Houston…I didn't expect to see you here."

He just stood there, watching her relax in the bubbling water.

"I just came back…I forgot something downstairs," he said, "I'll go get it and I'll be out of your hair."

She smiled.

"Why don't you join me?"

He sucked in his breath at her invitation, surely she didn't suspect him of knowing that she had written that novel that had kept him spellbound the past two days.

"I…don't have a suit."

She gave him a knowing look.

"Houston, you don't wear one anyway."

Now he knew she was teasing him to rile him up so that he could turn her down and leave quickly.

"Look I just have to go down and get some invoices and I'll be out of here."

She shrugged as he left her to go down the winding staircase to the gym, and past that and the pool table to the office which housed the printer. There waiting had been some invoices and then some communication by Serena asking him why he was avoiding her phone calls on the fax machine. He grabbed the papers and headed up to the lobby.

C.J. had watched him book down the staircase and had smiled knowing that she had gotten to him. Served him right for the times he had done it to her, like when he had kissed her after his frog Rupert had won the frog jumping contest. For a split second, she had allowed herself to imagine all the possibilities but then that eyebrow of his waggled which let her know it was all a joke.

She went back to crafting the next chapter of her novel, but the scene that had begun to unfold in vivid detail inside her head was a great start. Her two characters were finally putting their hang-ups aside and getting together. She wished real life could be so easy. But as she sipped her second glass of wine, she thought about what her own relationships had been like going back to her teens. Matt had teased her one on the phone about her so-called checkered past mostly because he knew that she had been very selective in her relationships and in the people she allowed to get close to her. He had learned later that it had to do with losing her father at an early age. An event that had a profound impact on her life and then add to that losing Carl, a man she had dearly loved. He had been good looking in a businessman way but he had been nice, and funny and when she got to know the serious young man, she had discovered that indeed still waters ran deeply.

Robert on the other hand, much more flamboyant and he had rushed back into her life like a roaring rapid, sweeping her up off of her feet in one big adrenalin rush. They spent their courtship doing things like mountain climbing, parasailing and off road bike riding. When things quieted down a notch, they stuck to white water rafting. The more physical side of the relationship had matched this intensity but what she had believed had been love at the time, seemed in retrospect more akin to being intoxicated to some irresistible force. When he had betrayed everything she had believed in, she felt as if she had plunged off a cliff but she got over that heartbreak in time and gained some healthy perspective to take with her.

Kyle, her last boyfriend hadn't lasted long before he went to his high school reunion in Grosse Point Michigan and came back with a fiancée. Ouch, had been what she felt when they were introduced in some very awkward setting.

Since then, she hadn't been out much with guys but then she hadn't been looking. She had been working long hours at the office and had taken up kick boxing again and had on impulse one day, started writing her novel on the computer feeling as if it had been stored up inside her for a long time.

But this novel had started taking on a life of its own and carried her along in its wake.

Matt sorted through the pages of invoices and found the ones he needed. His eyes narrowed as he saw what looked like more pages of the novel. He picked them up and tucked them carefully in the invoices. To read later when he had the time, to find out what else had been going inside the creative mind of his best friend. He left the printer and walked back up the stairs just as C.J. stepped out of the Jacuzzi looking for her robe. He found it on a nearby sofa and picked it up.

"Looking for something," he asked.

She just folded her arms standing in front of him in her bikini with water dripping off of her. Since when had she been looking like that, this beautiful form with a tentative smile

"Give me my robe."

He tossed it to her and she caught it deftly with her hands putting it on way too quickly. She had added more muscle to her frame but still appeared soft as well.

"So don't you have some place you're supposed to be?"

He showed her the invoices.

"I have to go through these and then meet Ashleigh for dinner."

Her brow lifted.

"Ashleigh, isn't she the masseuse at the Los Angeles Country Club?"

Matt nodded.

"Have fun…"

He looked over at her as she walked to take her wine glass back to the wet bar.

"What are you doing," he said, "surely you're not staying here all night."

She smiled, rinsing her glass.

"I'm finishing up some…briefs and then I'm heading on home…"

He nodded again and then perused several putting them aside, thinking that he could just get to them tomorrow.

"You really should go out and have some fun," he said, "You work way too hard. If you'll taken an afternoon off, maybe we could take the horses out riding."

She considered that and found it appealing.

"Okay…but it will have to wait until Friday…maybe.."

"That will work," he said, "I'll see you tomorrow."

She watched him go and then headed down to the lower level to shower and change into some comfortable clothing so she could hit the computer and work on her novel.

Matt got off the elevator and saw that he had been the first to arrive, since Chris and the other secretaries were all at a training seminar until noon. He had enjoyed dinner last night and Ashleigh and he had strolled on the beach for a while until she said she had to head home early because she had an early flight to Singapore where she would be assigned in the branch office of the corporation that employed her.

He noticed that there was a light on in what appeared to be C.J.'s office and he decided to check it out. He walked past the wet bar and into her office, where he saw her head resting on her hands and that she appeared sound asleep. Had she been burning the midnight oil on her computer again finishing one of the many assignments that Murray had given to her? He moved closer and looked over to her computer terminal, clicking the keyboard to activate the screen. But he didn't see any writing that had anything remotely to do with any legal documents, what he saw was some colorful prose about Royal, Carly and a lasso rope.

Oh my goodness weren't the first words that came to mind but they were close. He read a descriptive passage about some interlude between the two characters in the barn; wait a minute, it sounded like the one on his old ranch property. The same one that he didn't own but where he still kept his horses and went riding a couple times a week when he was in town.

Then next to him, someone began to stir.

"Who's there…Houston?"

He stepped away from the computer screen and scratched the back of his neck.

"Yeah it's me," he said, "I came in because the light is on. Don't tell me you stayed up all night here by yourself."

She stretched her arms.

"I had some writing to do."

"I see…"

Her eyes opened wider. Oh did he? Her heart raced, wondering if he had seen what had been lighting up her computer screen. Royal and Carly, their bodies intertwined in the barn loft…her blood heated up just thinking about it. In fact her dreams…never mind, not with Royal…Matt standing in the room because after all, Matt looked an awful lot like the character she had just dreamed about only minutes earlier.

"Have you eaten?"

She shook her head.

"I was going downstairs for Danish," she said, "What about you?"

"I cooked some eggs before I arrived," he said, "We postponed the stakeout and Roy's off at the meeting with that new client."

"What about you?"

He smiled.

"Oh I have some work to do here."

"Me too…"

He looked over at her.

"C.J. you need to go home and get some sleep," he said, "You just pulled an all-nighter."

"Houston, I'm fine…really…Noting some coffee and that Danish won't fix," she said, "Excuse me…"

She sashayed out of her office unaware of the effect she had on him. Wait a minute since when…oh he couldn't pretend anymore…even on the night before his wedding, he certainly hadn't been dreaming about Elizabeth. Guilt had stabbed at him back then but now since most of the heartache he had suffered after his broken engagement, he had put that entire experience behind him.

But what an invitation she had handed him last night when she had been sitting in the Jacuzzi wearing a bikini he had always partial about, though he never let on because what kind of observation would that be to say about his lifelong friend? He had been sorely tempted but he had backed off because of his date with Ashleigh, well that and the fact that the invite she had thrown his way had rendered him speechless.

After all, he had thought about that scene he had read with Royal, Carly and the Jacuzzi and no, that couldn't be the motivation behind her decision to invite him to join her. Not that they had never shared a Jacuzzi or that Jacuzzi but he saw something on her face he hadn't seen before.

Something that unnerved him, because he knew if he went down that road, he'd never come back.

C.J. ran into Chris at the coffee shop where she had started off getting a Danish but wound up sitting down for a meal of thick steak surrounded by scrambled eggs and hunks of friend potatoes. That and some strong coffee made for quite a breakfast.

Chris joined her after ordering some oatmeal and juice and told her that the seminar had gotten boring so she had skipped out on it.

"Don't tell Matt but I know all this stuff already."

"My lips are sealed."

Chris looked her over.

"You look like you spent the night at the computer again."

C.J. ignored the slight reproach in her voice.

"Listen, when I soaked in the Jacuzzi and after Houston refused my invite…"

"You did, he did what?"

Oh C.J. didn't think she would get past that part.

"I invited him in with me."

Chris' eyes widened.

"Oh wow…you know he doesn't like to wear a stitch of clothing when he soaks."

C.J. smiled.

"Except that hat," she said, "Well he refused and bolted downstairs. I think I scared him."

"That makes two of us."

C.J. scooped up some eggs in her mouth.

"I knew he wouldn't accept," she said, "I did it to get a rise out of him."

Chris sipped her juice.

"I imagine you did in a matter of speaking."

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it."

Chris dug a spoon in her oatmeal after powering it liberally with brown sugar.

"Well what do you expect," she said, "You've never issued an invitation like that and meant it so he knew what you were doing."

C.J. shrugged.

"He treats me the same way," she said, "Like the frog jumping contest."

Chris looked puzzled.

"What frog jumping contest?"

Oh yeah that had been before her time. Back when Pam had been working at Houston Enterprises before joining a convent in Spain and even she hadn't known about the contest.

"I helped his frog…Rupert…beat Bo and Lamar's frog and afterward, he kissed me."

"Seriously?"

"Well no, it was a joke but for a brief moment, it felt real."

Chris sighed at hearing that wistful tone in her friend's voice, a woman pretty good at covering up her own feelings some times. Including through this latest hobby she had picked up of writing romance fiction.

"Maybe he joked about it to hide his own feelings…"

C.J. snorted.

"You mean Houston," she said, "No I don't think so…he's very good at expressing exactly what he's thinking and great at getting what he wants."

"I don't think he's found her yet," Chris noted, "Especially since that whole thing with Elizabeth crashed and burned."

One descriptive way of putting it, C.J. thought.

"He will…and she'll be someone who needs to be rescued and taken care of by him," she guessed, "That's usually how it goes."

Chris shrugged.

"Maybe…but none of those relationships have ever worked out."

True, C.J. thought, but he probably hadn't found the perfect damsel in distress yet. But give him time and she'd be waiting on top of some ivory tower or tied to the railroad tracks.

Not someone like her who would scorch any man with a look who ever tried to rescue her? This woman took care of herself and had saved his butt a time or two as well. Just like Carly her heroine took care of herself while lighting Royal's fire. But her male protagonist unlike Matt was keeping pace.

Matt sat in his office, purportedly to read up on some case files for some meetings later this afternoon but his eyes were repeatedly drawn back to the scene when Royal had gazed upon his Carly for the first time, during their flirtation in the hot tub and as she had climbed out in was color was that bikini again, he had gazed upon the hint of a tattoo at the top of her bottoms. So Carly had a tattoo, which didn't sound like C.J. at all. But he imagined there might be more than a little creative license with this novel.

The phone ring and knowing the receptionists were still out, he picked it up only to discover Murray on the other end of the line.

"What's up Big Guy?"

Matt wondered not for the first time why the corporate president called him that.

"I've got some work I'm catching up on," he said, "Say are you planning on faxing any more work for C.J.?"

"Why yes, 10 more letters to research and write for today."

"Murray I don't want you to take this the wrong way," Matt said, "but C.J. is off of this assignment and won't be handling it anymore. You can work with Jennifer from now on."

"Well…okay…boss but C.J.'s the best attorney we have…"

"I know that but she's working with me on this end and not for Houston Enterprises for the most part."

Matt heard Murray sigh on the other end.

"Okay…I'll discharge her off the assignment."

"You do that and I'll be much happier…"

They said their goodbyes and Matt hung up the phone, smiling to himself as he sipped his coffee. With C.J. off of that assignment, she had more time for working on a special assignment with him. He just wondered if she were going to be up for it. But he would have his answer to that question soon enough.


	5. Chapter 5

"You did what?"

Matt looked up at C.J. who stood there dressed in the clothes she had been wearing last night and she didn't look all that happy with the news he had given her.

"You told Murray to take me off of that assignment?"

She started pacing the floor near the wet bar while Matt sat on the couch and watched her carefully. Not the reaction he had expected or wanted. Murray had worked her like a dog, taking complete advantage of her superiority over the other attorneys in his company, including the ones who had trained her.

"Why on earth did you do that?"

Matt sighed and stood up to stop her from pacing, by grabbing her shoulders and boy, she didn't like that anymore than she had liked him going over her head to get her off of Murray's send-to list.

"C.J., he was handing you way too much work."

She put her hands on her hips and stared back up at him.

"Says who?"

He didn't back down.

"Said you…last week…when you had over a dozen over reports to do in one day," he said, "That should never have happened."

She sighed this time.

"Houston, it's my job," she said, "and besides, you and I haven't exactly been working together lately…since..."

Since Roy had moved back to L.A. is what she meant to say but didn't because she didn't want to imply that she had any problems with that arrangement because she had always loved Roy…like her uncle. And unlike her own, Roy hadn't just viewed her as another body to work into the ground to upkeep his struggling ranch.

"I know we haven't been the team we used to be," he said, "or that we've spent a lot of time together."

She pursed her lips.

"We've both been very busy," she said, "and besides, we've both got active social lives."

True, he thought and he had a gander of what she had been doing during her free time. He had brought the pages he had discovered last night with him to the office and boy, did his friend have some serious talent at weaving a story around two compelling characters. He couldn't wait to find out what happened next in more ways than one.

"I'm still going to have to do a lot of the work anyway because those lawyer aren't going to be able to get it done fast enough for him."

Matt watched her tilt her head, her hair a mane of mahogany around her shoulders. Her eyes flashing at him indignantly at what she saw as his efforts to control her working environment but her mouth curved upward in a smile. He felt some degree of relief that at least part of her was amused by his actions even though she acted angry. Her pink woolen sweater hugged her curves and meshed well with her worn jeans.

"What are you looking at?"

He blinked his eyes.

"Look I know you think I'm stepping on your toes here but that's not my intention," he said, "I might have some other work for you to do that you might like better."

She eyed him cautiously.

"What kind of work?"

He paused, still looking at her.

"It's still in the idea stage but I'll bring you up to speed when I have it figured out."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Yeah right Houston," she said, "Maybe I should just head on home and let you handle the caseload filing by yourself."

"But…"

She folded her arms.

"Look…I appreciate you getting Murray off my back or I might tomorrow but Houston, I need something to do that's a lot different than what I've been doing."

He paused looking at her thoughtfully.

"Okay, you can work an assignment with Roy and me tonight,"he said," A party at some estate that's targeted by that master thief that's been breaking into houses and looting their safes…Roy's in charge of the catering and will be overseeing the operation. You'll be keeping an eye on the mark until it's time to make our move against him."

She smiled.

"That sounds like fun...what will you be doing?"

"I'll be with you," he said, "the thief only hits the safes when there's a party going on. It must be an inside job."

"Well some of the best heists in L.A. have involved crooks who pretended to be caterers or musicians."

Matt had a feeling that this thief as crafty as he had been, always a step or two ahead of getting caught, must be either one or the other. They would probably find out tonight but mostly he had asked C.J. to join him because he had missed working with her.

"So what are you going to be wearing, a tux?"

Matt made a face and that almost made her laugh. She knew he hated being all gussied up because he was a jeans and chambray shirt man who really loved his favorite worn pair of cowboy boots. But damn if he didn't look real fine whatever clothing he wore and she imagined he did out of them as well. Not that she gave that a lot of thought but she had to describe Royal during some of the hotter scenes in her novel when he ripped off his clothes, whether it had been a tux or his cowboy clothes including chaps. And she had needed to use a certain someone as inspiration.

After all, her imagination hadn't been that good.

"You need help with your bow tying?"

He shot her a look which did make her chuckle this time because truly no man had ever been left as undone by a piece of fabric as Matt had been when it came to dealing with tuxedo ties. But he sighed, and nodded.

"I might need your help again."

She didn't trust that glimmer in his eye at all.

"Why don't you practice a few times in the mirror as a dress rehearsal?"

She walked out of the office then and hit the wet bar for some of Roy's juices that he whipped together for them. This morning's offering tasted like citrus fruits and peach mixed together and she poured herself a second glass.

"It's delicious Roy."

He smiled at her.

"That course I took in preparing juices has really been useful," he said, "I'm going to be doing some experimentation with melons and pomegranates."

"That sounds great…you're going to be doing the catering tonight at the party?"

He nodded.

"It sounds like a simple enough operation," he said, "but the simplest ones on paper rarely turn out that way."

C.J. knew that just about anything could go wrong even with the best laid plans. Perhaps the targeted thief wouldn't even show up, leaving the three of them to spend the evening at a festive setting. She could think of wore ways to spend a few hours than dressing up really nice and heading out for a night of pretending to have fun. At some of the parties they had worked undercover surveillance; it had been a combination of attending a risqué party peppered with a few moments of action.

"Busy today," he asked.

"Actually no…because Houston told Murray not to send me anymore legal files," she said, "though he should have asked me first."

Roy sighed.

"He often acts without asking when it's someone he cares for very much."

She knew that about her best friend and truth be told, she more often appreciated it than not but this time, it had made her wonder if people she worked with would believe she hadn't been capable of handling it herself.

"I know he meant well…"

Roy tilted his head.

"You need to get back out in the field where you belong," he said, "You're not meant for desk duty and it was wearing you out."

"It wasn't all bad," she said, "It had its perks."

One, being that it had given her the drive to keep writing her novel and she felt like she had made some inroads with fleshing out her storyline and uniting her two main characters. Now she just had to find some roadblocks to add to their romance to provide the necessary conflict and tension in the plot. The road to true love, never running smoothly and all that, and that definitely mirrored her own life.

C.J.'s feet began to hurt not long after the party had gotten into full swing; at least as much as such a lowbrow affair could do that. Not her cup of tea at all, because she favored small, intimate parties with her friends, some great food and awesome music that led either to impromptu dancing or relaxation. She loved the dress that a friend of hers had loaned, and how the sleeves rested just off of her shoulders. Matt had worn one of his dreaded tuxes and had been pulling on his tie part of the ride to the party after he picked her up at her house. They had all attended a briefing before putting their operation into action. Even alerting Hoyt of what they were planning and he had just sighed and told them not to make a mess for he and his officers to clean up.

The two of them had a valet park the car once they had reached the end of the long tree-lined drive to the impressive estate. It belonged to a man who had been a diplomat to several different countries including Australia. When the butler let them in the house with a throng of other partygoers including a well-known actress and a city councilwoman, they had been met by the swell of music playing in the background with animated conversations in front. The servers had been rushing around without looking harried to keep everyone fed and watered.

She of course kept her eye out for anyone who looked out of place, before chiding herself that this thief clearly had become an expert at fitting in wherever he chose to strike. Roy would be keeping an eye on the catering end of things while she and Matt would cruise the party. They split up when they arrived and he was chatting up with other guests while remaining alert.

Suddenly C.J.'s eyes widened at a familiar sight. Oh my god, she thought as she saw the woman in a shockingly low cut scarlet covered dress, which matched the ruby clip that held her hair up in a coif saunter towards Matt.

Oh was he in for a shock, she thought as Serena clearly had dropped in town either on business or to generate some kind of mischief or both. C.J. knew that the two of them had "shared a couple of kisses" as Matt had told her once and judging by the sight that she and Slim had walked into one morning, quite a bit more but Matt had exorcised the scheming heiress out of his life and she had stayed away for a couple of years.

She saw Matt turn to look at Serena and to his credit, he looked pretty calm. But then again, maybe he still harbored an attraction to the spoiled daughter of a late billionaire who had made a host of people miserable including the man who had blown him up. That guy had been an old buddy of Matt and she felt his pain keenly when he had confronted him on the murder. She on the other hand had blessedly not encountered any of her exes at the party, at least not so far. She had studied the impressive looking house, wondering how it might factor in her novel. Maybe if Royal and Carly got stuck in some room somewhere and naturally instead of looking for a way out, surrendered to their smoldering passion.

Oh, she needed something cool and strong to drink fast so she grabbed more champagne. She wondered if the thief would show or if he were even mingling in their midst. Anyone here was on the list of suspects.

"Hello beautiful," a voice said.

C.J. turned and looked into the most intense pair of blue eyes she'd seen in a while. The man who stood in front of her appeared very fit and virile in his tuxedo and had a mop of brown hair on his head.

"Hello yourself…"

"I noticed you the moment that you walked in the door," he said, "with that guy whose cutting a business deal in the corner there leaving his woman untended."

She arched a brow at him.

"This woman can handle her own entertainment at a party, thank you."

He nodded.

"I didn't mean anything by it," he said, "It's just that if I had a woman on my arm as lovely as you, I would never leave her alone."

She smiled, thinking okay, the guy looked just fine to her and yes, Matt was off somewhere doing his thing. They both likely had some time to kill before the thief would show his hand if he appeared here at all.

"I'm C.J. and you're…"

He smiled broadly.

"My name's Phillip," he said, "I'm visiting from back East. I have a company in Boston that's got tendrils in other places as well."

She shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you Phillip," she said.

"Likewise…why don't we take a walk and check out this fancy place?"

She thought about it and found it to be a great idea.

"Oh Matlock darling, what a small world we both live in…"

Matt's eyes had widened when he saw the familiar woman approach him. Yes, she had called him several times and even sent a fax to his office but he had been hoping she would get bored and go away, given that her attention span had never been very long.

"Serena…fancy meeting you here."

She folded her arms and stared at him.

"Oh mi amore, why do you avoid me so," she said, "I left messages everywhere for you."

Matt fidgeted with his bow tie some more.

"I've been busy…and Serena, it's over between us, it's been over and you need to move on with your life."

If she appeared disappointed by his words, she didn't show it. She reached over to fix his tie for him.

C.J. glanced over at Serena with her hands on Matt's chest and rolled her eyes. But hey, if she made Matt happy for a little while before she invariably upset him, he would survive.

"Your date's found someone to keep him occupied," Philip noted, "Crass behavior if you ask me."

She hadn't but she got his point even if she didn't appreciate it. They left the party and walked down the corridor.

Matt pushed Serena away from him.

"Take it easy," he said, "We're not going down this road again."

Now her face looked hurt.

"Oh Matlock, have I hurt you that much, what can I do to make it up to you?"

He just sighed.

"Nothing…just chalk it up to us being incompatible and walk away…"

She shook her head.

"I can't do that…you see I love you…"

Matt doubted that highly, he didn't think she even really knew the meeting of the words. She loved herself and money, preferably together and that was about it. He looked past her and he frowned as he realized that C.J. had disappeared. When had she left the room because he remembered seeing her talking to some guy but then Serena had distracted him.

"Excuse me…"

He started to walk away and she grabbed his arm.

"Aren't you going to answer my declaration of love for you?"

He turned to face her.

"You don't love me Serena," he said, "You want something from me and are trying to seduce it out of me…"

Her mouth dropped open.

"But…"

"No I don't think you've ever loved anyone Serena," he said, "and that's a truly sad state of affairs. Now excuse me, but I've got to find someone…"

She just stared at him as he walked away.

C.J. and Phillip had headed towards the back of the estate towards a pair of French doors that went out into a garden that looked fairly impressive from inside. Lights shone on beds of roses of different colors and types and a fountain of a nymph provided a centerpiece.

"He's got some of the prize winning roses that were written up in Home and Garden last month," Phillip said.

She smiled, putting her hands on the door to peer through the glass.

"They are really lovely."

He turned to face her.

"So are you…I knew it the moment I walked in and saw you standing there."

She tilted her face.

"So you did?"

He nodded and suddenly she knew he wanted to kiss her. Did she want that too? Well she wanted some passion in her life, writing about her fictional characters as they explored their own had awakened something inside her. So when he placed his hands on her bare shoulders and pulled her closer, she went with it. His lips brushed hers and it felt nice, and as he slowly deepened the kiss, she enjoyed it until he pulled away, looking at her.

"Damn you are really beautiful," he said.

"You're not so bad yourself."

"Would you like to take a walk in the garden," he asked.

Okay, she had been around enough to know that they wouldn't just be strolling among the flowers if she agreed to go with his offer. And while she thought him charming and great looking, she just didn't want to go beyond that kiss.

"I don't think so…I have a date after all and here I've already kissed someone else."

"He left you as soon as you both came inside," Phillip said, "Not much of a date."

"He…"

Oh yeah, she couldn't explain why they had really attended this party so she just looked at him.

"It's not good manners to sneak off with someone else and that's what we'd be doing."

He didn't deny that but he smiled, stroking her arm.

"Okay…but you are choosing someone who didn't even notice you walking off with me."

No, she guessed Matt hadn't but he had been busy casing the place for a thief just like she had been doing.

"I'm sorry but I can't…"

He appeared to take his disappointment quite well and in a second that any opportunity to press the issue was lost.

"C.J. I was looking…"

She looked up and saw Matt with his bow tie askew approach her and Phillip.

"I'm sorry…Phillip and I were just looking around…"

Matt had been around long enough to know that wasn't quite the entire truth but he let it rest. He just gave the guy a look over.

"She's with me…"

"I know and I'm sorry, but you can't blame a guy for trying."

Another look from Matt which C.J. didn't catch sent Phillip on his way with a final goodbye. She turned to face Matt.

"Why are you here," she said, "I thought you had Serena keeping you busy."

He just looked at her a long moment, almost as if not sure what to do next. She arched a brow at them, totally not used to seeing that side of him. Matt had always been alpha male with some beta stirred in the mix but always self-assured and confident in his actions and words. Not the man standing before her right now.

"Okay…so she's not here with you now."

He shook his head.

"She's out searching for her next conquest."

She smiled.

"Well you know what you were getting into with her," she said, "So I can't feel too sorry for you."

Matt looked at the beautiful woman in front of him, his feelings conflicting and he didn't know why but whatever was going on had to wait because they both had a job to do.

"We'd better get back to the party," he said, "The thief could be mingling right now or serving food and drink for all we know."

She nodded, all professional now.

He put out his hand and she took it and they headed back to the party to await the appearance of the thief.


End file.
